[pefloresjr]

SC did often play with one safety deep, but your point holds that it was frequently man coverage with the single deep safety.

It also seemed to me that that single deep safety tended to remain in the middle of the field and his first two steps seemed to be forward. He was not going to be of any use for things up the seam or out wide.

It’s not really fair to say that our receivers had trouble beating coverage.  There are a lot of ways to beat coverage, and blowing past it with superior speed is only one way to do so.  Being bigger and stronger is another way.

Sorry BC, but I can't agree. Being bigger and stronger is way to succeed in completing a pass despite not beating the coverage. If you truly beat the coverage, through either blowing by them or through confusing them or flooding the zone or whatever else, the defender is not in a position to materially affect the receiver catching the pass. That is importantly different from being engaged by a defender and out-competing him for the ball. If you have defeated the coverage and the QB throws the ball a bit off target, the receiver can go get it without running through a defender and getting OPI. Even if the receiver doesn't catch the pass it is unlikely a defender will either. If the defender is right there and McKee misses by a bit, it can easily be an int. Remember how many ints KJ threw when he threw the ball just a bit (or a lot) too low? Secondly, the ability to physically defeat the defender is not a given. If the defender can get a hand on the ball, that is often enough to produce an incomplete pass. Not at all the same thing as actually having significant separation.
You can win a lot of games in college if your receivers are good at out competing for the ball, but it is hard to reach an elite level that way. Too many things can go wrong. The QB has to be reliably accurate and the DBs have to not time their jump to deflect the pass. You will also get eaten up by over under coverage if the defense can pull it off. At a real high level, one interception can make the difference. However, we have to play with the players we have. Simi is not here and Wilson is out. Lots easier to play when you have a deep threat that has to be honored each and every play.

One thing I didn’t understand about yesterday, is that if USC was playing man, how come they had such time generating pressure.

BC

Me either. They were supposed too be hard to block because they blitzed from everywhere. It is true that our RBs had to do a lot of blocking, and I remember one play where the back had to chose one of two free rusher to block. I think McKee in general got it out quick when there was pressure, and the man coverage helped on "stop" type routes.

Absolutely wrong to say Stanford didn't beat the coverage with play design or execution.  We had a surprising number of play where our running backs in particular got passes where the were very open over the middle of the field.  SC clearly had not prepared for this and McKee did a great job of exploiting it.  No team gets that done on every or even most plays.  Stanford did a great job exploiting SC's assumption that the could cover our outside receivers without help and their assumption that our running  backs wouldn't hurt them in the receiving game like McCaffrey would.  Our receivers did what they are supposed to do, beat the defender in man coverage without safety help.  That is not a fluke, it is the way a smart coaching staff is supposed to make the defense pay for trying to win playing man coverage on our outside receivers.  There is nothing strange or flukey about this, it is great coaching and performance.   

Cheers,
Pete F.

[pefloresjr]

SC did often play with one safety deep, but your point holds that it was frequently man coverage with the single deep safety.

It also seemed to me that that single deep safety tended to remain in the middle of the field and his first two steps seemed to be forward. He was not going to be of any use for things up the seam or out wide.

It’s not really fair to say that our receivers had trouble beating coverage.  There are a lot of ways to beat coverage, and blowing past it with superior speed is only one way to do so.  Being bigger and stronger is another way.

Sorry BC, but I can't agree. Being bigger and stronger is way to succeed in completing a pass despite not beating the coverage. If you truly beat the coverage, through either blowing by them or through confusing them or flooding the zone or whatever else, the defender is not in a position to materially affect the receiver catching the pass. That is importantly different from being engaged by a defender and out-competing him for the ball. If you have defeated the coverage and the QB throws the ball a bit off target, the receiver can go get it without running through a defender and getting OPI. Even if the receiver doesn't catch the pass it is unlikely a defender will either. If the defender is right there and McKee misses by a bit, it can easily be an int. Remember how many ints KJ threw when he threw the ball just a bit (or a lot) too low? Secondly, the ability to physically defeat the defender is not a given. If the defender can get a hand on the ball, that is often enough to produce an incomplete pass. Not at all the same thing as actually having significant separation.
You can win a lot of games in college if your receivers are good at out competing for the ball, but it is hard to reach an elite level that way. Too many things can go wrong. The QB has to be reliably accurate and the DBs have to not time their jump to deflect the pass. You will also get eaten up by over under coverage if the defense can pull it off. At a real high level, one interception can make the difference. However, we have to play with the players we have. Simi is not here and Wilson is out. Lots easier to play when you have a deep threat that has to be honored each and every play.

One thing I didn’t understand about yesterday, is that if USC was playing man, how come they had such time generating pressure.

BC

Me either. They were supposed too be hard to block because they blitzed from everywhere. It is true that our RBs had to do a lot of blocking, and I remember one play where the back had to chose one of two free rusher to block. I think McKee in general got it out quick when there was pressure, and the man coverage helped on "stop" type routes.

Absolutely wrong to say Stanford didn't beat the coverage with play design or execution.  We had a surprising number of play where our running backs in particular got passes where the were very open over the middle of the field.  SC clearly had not prepared for this and McKee did a great job of exploiting it.  No team gets that done on every or even most plays.  Stanford did a great job exploiting SC's assumption that the could cover our outside receivers without help and their assumption that our running  backs wouldn't hurt them in the receiving game like McCaffrey would.  Our receivers did what they are supposed to do, beat the defender in man coverage without safety help.  That is not a fluke, it is the way a smart coaching staff is supposed to make the defense pay for trying to win playing man coverage on our outside receivers.  There is nothing strange or flukey about this, it is great coaching and performance.   

Cheers,
Pete F.